


Curiouser and Curiouser

by qianwanshi



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: F/M, M/M, Not Beta Read, i gotta confess, it's a hogwarts au, no HP characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-10-03
Packaged: 2019-03-06 20:53:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13419435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qianwanshi/pseuds/qianwanshi
Summary: Nothing has been the same since Adam got that letter, delivered by owl that July several years ago. He thought that would be the craziest thing to happen to him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> More a sandbox than a cohesive story, though I will try to keep things in some sense of order, I promise. It's all for funsies, not really beta read but hey if you're interested. Written as the inspiration hits, posted when the whim hits, an endless pool of ideas in my brain spiderwebs.

It’s in fifth year when Adam meets Gansey by total chance. Gansey would like to put it up to fate or divine intervention, but really there were just no seats left amongst his other Gryffindor friends. They’re in transfiguration, Adam’s best class and Gansey’s worst, as hard as it may be to believe Gansey isn’t immediately good at everything he tries. (It’s too strict, he’ll complain weeks later in the library. No room for creativity, it’s stifling.)

 

A conversation stirs between them when Gansey compliments his spellwork with an enthusiasm that Adam initially suspects is exaggerated. (It’s not at all exaggerated, he’ll learn later. Gansey really is that geeky.) He practically begs Adam to tutor him by the end of the work period, and Adam agrees because the extra practice will do him some good as well, he figures.

 

They meet for the first time outside in one of the numerous vast green fields under the sun and with a stack of books, where they work on correcting Gansey’s stance and motions. For someone who Adam had seen as proper to the point of stuffiness at first, Gansey really doesn’t have the patience his image portrays. It doesn’t take very long before they’re distracted, chatting and laughing and suddenly friends, that easily. It had never once been that easy for Adam before then.

 

“I’m surprised,” Adam confesses later, as they both review their notes in shared silence sprawled in the grass. “Most of your classmates wouldn’t speak to me once they saw the green tie.” He gestures briefly to the tie in question, hanging loosely around his neck.

 

Gansey eyes him like he’s a curious oddity. It’s not an unfriendly gaze, those Adam are used to, it’s something else he can’t quite name. “It’s just a house,” he says simply.

 

He fixes his glasses and looks back into his book without saying anything more than that. “Just a house.” In all the years Adam has been at this school he’s never once heard such a sentiment. House is the be all end all to most people, it means everything to them. People he had been friendly with on the train had offered nothing but silence after their sorting ceremony, and others who hadn’t given him a second glance had gained interest. It hadn’t made much sense to him then, and this makes just as little now.

 

Before he can express this in words, however, a chill rolls over them both, stopping his breath short. Goosebumps trail down his arms despite the late summer heat he’d been enjoying barely a second ago. Gansey shows no outward reaction to the cold, though Adam thinks maybe his shoulders are a bit more hunched than they’d been before.

 

“Hi, Noah,” Gansey says without tearing his eyes away from his book.

 

A laughing groan responds from behind them and Adam turns in place. A boy of about their age, maybe a year or two older, stands in his neatly arranged school uniform with a wide grin on his face. He looks like any other student who has walked past them, except for the faint glow and not quite solidly there transparency that hangs around the many school ghosts.

 

“Thought I’d get you that time,” the boy, Noah says. He circles around to sit on the grass in front of both Gansey and Adam. “Scared him though!” He points at Adam, looking even more pleased with himself.

 

“Don’t torture Adam, please.” Gansey finally looks up from his book. “He’s a friend.”

 

Something happy flutters in Adam’s chest. A week ago they’d barely known each other, today they’re friends. 

 

Noah talks and talks and doesn’t seem to mind when Adam returns quietly to taking notes out of his book. He listens absently, but none of the stories being told seem to hold much substance. He’s not even sure that Noah is listening to himself, after a while.

 

Then, “Ronan’s coming,” and Noah is gone.

 

Gansey goes tense, and so Adam goes tense. He has no idea who Ronan is, but if he makes Gansey make _that_ face, it can’t be good.

 

True to Noah’s word, a pair of feet are soon standing in front of them once more, this time solid and human. Worn in boots and a somehow disheveled without looking sloppy uniform on a grumpy looking hufflepuff, tall and skinny in the way of someone who has had a recent growth spurt. 

 

“Don’t you have class?” Gansey asks, squinting through the sun to look up at Ronan properly.

 

This was, apparently, the wrong thing to say. Ronan sighs loudly and drops to the ground heavily. He glances once at Adam like he can’t believe he’s there before he drops onto his back in the grass, eyes closed.

 

“Ronan-” Gansey starts. He’s interrupted by a middle finger pointed his way, then dropped back so Ronan’s head rests on it again.

 

Gansey huffs quietly, looking as near irritated as Adam has seen him be in their week of friendship. It looks like he has more to say, and probably he does. Instead, he looks at Adam apologetically and back down to his book.

 

Several minutes drag by in a tense silence. Gansey doesn’t turn a page, and by all appearances, Ronan is sleeping soundly in the grass. Adam looks around, wondering to himself if it’s time to find an excuse to leave. His eyes catch on the open book in Gansey’s lap, a diagram of a car drawn out on the pages.

 

“What’s that?” Adam asks, pointing at the drawing.

 

Gansey jolts a little in his dazed state, unaware he’d been caught staring at the same page for too long.

 

“Oh.” He smiles, but it’s too tight. “Muggle studies, we’re learning about cars. Fascinating, but puzzling, don’t you think?”

 

“I don’t take it,” Adam admits. “I know cars, though.”

 

A suspicious snort comes from Ronan then, left ignored.

 

“Do you?” Gansey seems downright pleased by the knowledge. “Could you explain the engine to me?”

 

Adam does, breaking down the parts and pieces and functions of engines and how they work together. Most people would have tuned out long ago, but Gansey hangs onto every word like it’s the most interesting thing he’s ever heard. 

 

“Wow,” he breathes at the conclusion of Adam’s explanation. “How do you know all that?”

 

“I work at a garage over the summers.” It’s out of Adam’s mouth before he can think about it. He feels sick at the prospect of Gansey’s conclusions from the statement: his family are muggles, poor, and bad enough to be around that he’d rather work endless hours on his summer vacation than be with them. They may all be true, but he doesn’t want Gansey to _know_ that. 

 

“Amazing.” There are practically stars in Gansey’s eyes. “Do you know how radios work, too? And how to change tires?”

 

“Christ alive, Dick,” Ronan groans loudly. “He’s not your thesaurus.”

 

While his words are harsh, his tone is not. Adam is surprised to hear the soft lilt of an Irish accent in them.

 

“I don’t mind,” Adam insists quickly. The stressed look had left Gansey’s eyes for at least a moment, just from Adam talking about what had once been his everyday life. No one had ever listened to something so mundane with such an interest. No one had ever listened to _Adam_ like his words were anything other than a burden.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> midterms come and midterms go

With the threat of midterms looming just around the corner, Adam hasn’t slept properly in days. A nap here or there to get him through the day, but mostly he’s been happy that his house common room is so near to the dining hall, where both snacks and caffeine are always available. 

On this night in particular, the caffeine has him a little too jittery to sit and get back to studying, so he’s decided to get up and walk his extra energy off. The castle is always kind of eerily relaxing at night, and no one will be out monitoring the halls anyway. If he’s caught, he’ll say he got lost on the way to the library, now open 24 hours to accommodate the influx of stressed out students. 

The dimly lit halls are more or less deserted anyway, lucky for him. He briefly contemplates sneaking outside, watching the lake shimmering in the bright moonlight, but he still hasn’t been able to discern if the rumors of the monster living in the lake are true or not. The last thing he needs is to be devoured silently in the night when no one knows where he is.

Instead, he goes where the castle takes him. Whichever stairs move toward him he takes, a left, a right, down and up again. He’s not following any particular cues and he’s not paying any particular attention to what part of the castle he’s in, either. So it surprises him when he opens a door and finds himself in the owlery. 

Most of the owls are out in the night, hunting and soaring through the sky. Others sit on their perches grooming themselves and watching Adam move through the room with their creepy wide eyed gazes. He stops to pet one with the back of his fingers, smiling at the downy softness of her feathers and finally feeling himself settle in his skin a bit.

“Parrish?” A voice asks from behind him.

Adam jumps like he’s been shocked and the owl he was petting flies off to another perch, feathers ruffled in displeasure. Once his heart leaves his throat, Adam turns in his place to see who else is in the owlery this late at night. How had he not seen anyone else when he came in?

“Ronan?” If he wasn’t staring directly at him standing there, Adam wouldn’t believe this was happening. 

“What the hell are you doing up here?” They ask each other at the same time. They both stare without answering, Ronan looking around like he doesn’t want to meet Adam’s eyes.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Adam finally admits.

“And what, the smell of bird shit calms you?” Ronan asks scornfully.

“Just ended up here.” Adam shrugs, it’s the truth again. He finds, more and more often, that the truth is easiest, especially with Ronan. “You?”

Oddly, Ronan fidgets where he stands, still avoiding Adam’s eyes and refusing to respond. He could have easily said ‘nothing’ and Adam wouldn’t have thought twice, but now…

Before Adam can ask, the silence between them is disrupted by a horrible squawking coming from the vicinity of Ronan’s crotch. He tries to act like it hadn’t happened, then it happens again. 

“Ronan,” Adam keeps his voice level. “Why are your robes screaming?”

Ronan rolls his eyes, but can no longer avoid the truth. He reaches into the deep pocket of his daily robe (pulled over surprisingly soft looking pajamas) and pulls out a…. Thing.

“What the hell is that?” Adam asks. Normally he would probably try to maintain some ounce of calm, at least for Ronan’s sake, but Ronan pulling a lump of squirming screeching flesh out of his pocket isn’t _normally_.

“She,” Ronan corrects pointedly, “is a raven.”

“Did you find it-” Adam stops short at Ronan’s glare. “-her up here?”

“No.” Ronan pulls her close to his chest. For warmth, Adam assumes, though it looks an awful lot like a cuddle. “She’s mine.”

Something about the image of Ronan cradling a small animal to his chest seems wrong to the image of him Adam has had in his mind in the short time he’s known him. This can’t be the same angry boy who skips classes and throws fits when Gansey cares too much. This boy in the owlery is… soft. Gentle. There are no stress lines between his brows and no frown on his face.

“She has to eat often,” Ronan explains without prompting. “She wakes everyone in the dorm up because she’s so noisy, so I come here to feed her.”

Adam approaches slowly, like if he moves too quickly Ronan will wake up and tell him to fuck off. “What’s her name?”

Ronan turns so Adam can get a decent look at the large squirming baby bird still held to his chest. “Chainsaw,” he responds.

The look Adam gives Ronan is completely involuntary in his disbelief. Chainsaw, seriously.

“Can I feed her?” He hadn’t planned on asking, he hadn’t planned on sticking around at all, but he finds himself fascinated.

That’s how they find themselves seated on one of the many balconies under the moonlight, night air cool though not yet freezing. Ronan carefully shifts Chainsaw into one of Adam’s hands and pushes it close to his chest in a surprisingly gentle grip.

“She’ll get too cold out here,” he whispers.

“What does she eat?” Adam whispers back.

They’re the only two people in probably this entire wing of the castle. 

“I got some stuff thrown together in the kitchens.” Ronan produces a container of liquidy muck and a small food syringe from his other robe pocket. The formula stinks of old food, but he shows Adam how to help her drink it properly. 

She finishes but Ronan allows Adam to continue holding her close, head buried in the space between Adam’s hand and chest comfortably. She’s kind of cute, Adam thinks as he strokes her once, if you get past the exterior. 

“-ish. _Parrish_.” Ronan’s voice rips him awake very suddenly, completely unaware he’d fallen asleep at all. 

“Give her here.” He pulls Chainsaw away and she shrieks once at him. “Go to bed, you’ll smell like bird tomorrow if you sleep here.”

Adam grunts in acknowledgement and somehow finds his way to his feet, unsteady as he is. He finds himself hoping the castle is cooperative in getting him back to his dorm as fast as possible. Shuffling toward the door and leaving Ronan behind with his bird, Adam stops halfway there to turn around.

“Thanks, Ro,” he mumbles. “I won’t tell.”

Ronan doesn’t shift to look back at Adam, all his attention on the bird back in his hands. He does, however, quietly respond. “Thanks.”

Adam does get caught by a professor on his way back to his dorm, but gives his library excuse through such a tired warble that they let him go without any more prying. The sleep he gets is better than any he’d gotten all week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to publish in more or less the order of events in-story, but if things get mixed up later I promise I'll rearrange.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A tiny little short addition, how very fitting.

The first time Gansey meets Blue is, to put it as nicely as possible, a complete disaster.

Truthfully, he’d noticed Adam’s infatuation over several weeks, and decided to take action on his behalf. He’s really more shy than someone as charming as he is has any right to be. He figures it’ll be easy, pop in to say hello, give Adam’s name, point him out in a crowd, and move along.

By all outward appearances, she dislikes Gansey on sight, which makes things a bit more difficult than he’d anticipated. She listens to him talk with visible disdain, and when Gansey points to Adam at his table in the great hall, she rolls her eyes.

“He can’t even come talk to me himself?” She asks.

Gansey’s words fumble together, trying to stutter through an explanation that Adam hadn’t put him up to this. Impossibly, Blue looks even more bothered by him then.

By the end of the interaction, Gansey is trailing away like a sad puppy back to Ronan who doesn’t even try to hide his laughter. Gansey wants to throw a muffin at his head, but that would be a waste of breakfast. He glowers instead, which only makes Ronan laugh harder.

Despite the crash and burn, Adam and Blue end up meeting anyway, on their own. Adam does much better without Gansey’s interference, especially once Blue realizes he’s from a muggle family like her. They bond quickly, and somehow, Adam convinces her that Gansey and Ronan aren’t quite as irritating as she’d originally concluded. (She maintains that, no, they really are, but still finds herself joining them frequently at meals and lounging times anyway.)

The two fall into a relationship, and Gansey watches as Adam somehow simultaneously gains confidence and anxiety from it. He wants to offer advice, to somehow help Adam through things, but knows that it would not likely be met graciously. 

They all fall in love with Blue, in a way. Noah, openly and loudly; Ronan, while bickering like siblings. Gansey thinks she’s brilliant, though she’s a Ravenclaw so it’s not exactly unexpected. She’s clever and sharp tongued, never afraid to call Ronan out or tell Gansey when his muggle questions get on her nerves.

The relationship is tumultuous and, ultimately, short lived. They split quietly at the end of fifth year, but remain friends after some time spent apart. Blue remains an essential member of their group, as much as she claims irreparable damage to her reputation caused by being seen so frequently with a Gryffindor.


End file.
